17 Freezer Meal Prep Sessions That Will Change Your Life

Here are 17 freezer meal prep sessions that will help you stock your freezer with healthy and delicious dinners. During the “prep session,” all you need to do is combine the meats, vegetables, sauces and spices, and freeze (That’s right – there’s no cooking required ahead of time!). Every prep session includes free printable recipes and a grocery list, so the process couldn’t be easier.

I’ve made hundreds of freezer meals and I’m excited to share my favorite freezer prep sessions with you. If you’ve never frozen a meal for your crockpot before, prepare to be amazed. All you need to do is combine the ingredients in gallon-sized plastic bags and freeze.

Since the meals are so easy to prepare, I like to spend an hour on the weekend making 6-8 at once. That way my freezer is stocked with meals for the week and I don’t have to do any extra cooking. In the morning all I have to do is dump a freezer meal into my crockpot and dinner is done. (And, boy, does my house smell amazing!)

I’ve done all of these freezer prep sessions myself so I can tell you that the recipes are delicious, budget-friendly, and 100x healthier than the drive-thru. Preparing meals like this has changed my life so much that I wrote multiple cookbooks about it. Once you see how easy it is to make freezer meals for your crockpot, I know you’ll be hooked too.

17 Freezer Meal Prep Sessions That Will Change Your Life

Eight Healthy Crockpot Freezer Meals in 75 Minutes: This session includes recipes for beef roast and carrots, chicken fajitas, Mexican chicken soup, and garden veggie soup with ground beef. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each.

Eight Crockpot Freezer Meals from Whole Foods in 35 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for chicken teriyaki, chicken chili, honey dijon pork and green beans, hot pepper pork and butternut squash, beef fajitas, and pepperoncini shredded beef. I only spent $92 total on ingredients, which is awesome because these meals are packed with healthy and organic ingredients.

Eight Crockpot Freezer Meals in 35 Minutes: This session includes recipes for cranberry pork roast and green beans, Italian chicken, Mexican chili with cornbread topping, and honey dijon pork. To save time and money, you make two of each recipe, but you can vary the meat to make the meals different (For example, making one freezer bag of cranberry pork roast and one freezer bag of cranberry chicken.) I spent a total of $60 on ingredients. The chili with cornbread topping is to die for.

12 Crockpot Freezer Meals from Costco in 75 minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for red pepper chicken, honey sesame chicken, tomato turkey and veggie soup, and turkey and black bean chili. To save time and money, you make three bags of each recipe. I spent $87 on ingredients and was so glad I made three of each. These recipes are awesome!

Six Freezer Crockpot Meals from ALDI in 40 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for cranberry chicken, Italian chicken, and tomato beef veggie soup. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $44 on ingredients. The tomato beef veggie soup is so good even my toddlers inhaled it.

Six Budget-Friendly Make-Ahead Crockpot Meals in One Hour: This freezer session includes recipes for white chicken chili, ham and potato soup, and hamburger vegetable soup. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I only spent $26 on ingredients – such a great deal!

Six Healthy Crockpot “Comfort Foods” in 40 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for beef roast and carrots, pot roast and green beans, and beef barley stew. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. These are my favorite recipes to make when boneless beef chuck roasts are on sale at the grocery store. They are seriously, seriously delicious. I spent $50 on ingredients during this session.

Six Cheap Freezer Crockpot Meals in 50 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for shredded BBQ chicken, beef lime chili, and Mexican chicken chili with cornbread topping. (We love all three of these recipes.) To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $30 on ingredients.

Six Freezer Crockpot Meals in 30 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for Mexican chicken chili with cornbread topping, balsamic chicken and pears, and Hawaiian chicken. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. To be honest, I wasn’t crazy about the balsamic chicken and pear recipe. It’s the only recipe I’ve made from Once a Month Meals that I didn’t like.

Six Ground Beef Crockpot Freezer Meals in 50 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for beef vegetable soup, Mexican beef chili with cornbread topping, and beef black bean chili. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $56 on ingredients. These are the best recipes to make when ground beef is on sale. They are so yummy.

Six Crockpot Soup Freezer Meals in One Hour: This freezer session includes recipes for sausage spinach tomato soup, meatball veggie soup, and chicken soup with Mexican seasonings. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $46 on ingredients and peeled more carrots than ever before, but it was worth it because the soups were delicious.

Six Chicken Freezer Crockpot Meals in 30 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for red pepper chicken, orange-ginger chicken, and lemon pepper chicken. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $20 on ingredients. These recipes are super healthy and don’t include any processed foods.

Seven Slow Cooker Freezer Meals in an Hour: This freezer session includes recipes for beef roast and carrots, chicken fajitas, spicy Dr. Pepper shredded pork, and chicken pot pie with tater tots. The chicken pot pie sauce requires some cooking before freezing. We really loved all of these recipes.

Six Make-Ahead Meals from Costco in 40 Minutes: This freezer session focuses on frozen meatballs from Costco and includes recipes for meatball veggie soup, sweet n sour meatballs, and spaghetti and meatballs. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $45 on ingredients. These are probably the easiest freezer meals I’ve ever made and the spaghetti and meatballs were extra delicious.

Five Freezer Slow Cooker Meals in an Hour: This freezer session includes recipes for chicken curry, mini meatball soup, and beef roast with carrots. I need to make that curry again sometime soon – it was so good!

Six Healthy Freezer Crockpot Meals in 50 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for chicken teriyaki, balsamic beef roast, and lime shredded pork. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $73 on ingredients. The lime shredded pork recipe is one of our favorites.

Six Make-Ahead Freezer Meals in 50 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for honey sesame chicken, brown sugar meatloaf, and turkey white bean kale soup. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $60 on ingredients. I love that the meatloaf recipe can be frozen without any cooking ahead of time and cooks in the oven. Perfect for nights when we need a break from the crockpot.

So there you have it, 17 different ways you can spend about an hour stocking your freezer with homemade meals. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and I’ll reply as soon as I can.

Depends on the vegetable. Fresh corn and rhubarb need no preprep,
Berries don’t need blanching either, nor do peaches, pineapple and the like, but apples need to be treated with Citric acid to maintain color and texture before freezing. Squash, pumpkin, asparagus, and zuchinni, and most other veges all need some prep in varying degrees and methods. I always do a freeze test with a small quantity of any fruit and Vege when I am unsure, Food preservation books usually have sections on freezing that are very helpful. The “Ball Blue Book”.guide is a good one that is inexpensive, and their Ball “Complete Book of Home Preserving” is an investment worth making if you, like me, enjoy freezing the results of summer gardening and farmers market produce.

Hello!
I just wanted to thank you for sharing all these great recipes! I have already tried about 10 and they have all been great! I love that they are easily adaptable to my family and you included all the instructions grocery lists where to buy it, everything someone who works full time and wants to avoid the drive thru could ask for!!! I am already planning to do a bigger session and make multiples of a bunch of the recipes we have already tried and loved! I have seen a bunch of “freeze ahead” crockpot meal websites and I’m so glad I found yours so simple to follow and everything is fresh frozen and easy.

Every one of these sounds amazing. I agree with Mich. These are the best freezer meals I have found. The only thing is Im having a problem trying to pull up the grocery list and recipes. When I click on the link it kicks me off? I would love to give these a try.

Thanks for your hard work. I read through a lot of comments but not all of them looking to see if anyone requested low carb meals but I didn’t see any. Would you consider putting together a low carb meal plan?
Thanks

This may be a silly question but for the amount of ingredients already listed for the recipes, is that already doubled to make two? or if i want to make two freezer bags of the one meal i still need to double?

For example, the crockpot beef and chili lime recipe calls for 1 lb of ground beef. Is this 1 lb meant for just one freezer bag or is that for two, so each freezer bag comes with 1/2 lb of ground beef.

The recipes are written so that you know how much to add to each bag. Since the chili recipe calls for 1lb of beef, that is how much to add to each bag. The grocery lists are written to help you buy all of the ingredients needed for each prep session (even if recipes are doubled).

I guess it doesn’t matter that it’s all in plastic bags which will polute the enviroment. If you want to eat healthy, you should start by paying attention to your enviroment because those plastic bags will eventually be in your meal…just saying

And what greenwashing are you doing to “help”? As an environmental scientist i assure you that using fresh and non processed foods and storing them in re-useable (gasp, yes gallon freezer bags can be washed and reused) to feed my family is much better for the planet than the full of packaging alternatives that are equally fast but have zero nutritional value. Ok back to cleaning the planet and doing something that actually helps, not making busy wives and mothers feel bad about their choices for me. Have fun trolling the Internet.

I love the recipes and can’t wait to try them just have a few questions.
Can you please tell me when you are writing bell peppers and red or green peppers are you referring to capsicum?
When you are saying ground turkey or pork is this what we call mince?
Also what size bags are you using as in Australia we don’t have gallon bags

i put a good quality of paper towel in the middle of each meal, always let everything cool off before freezing. if u use the aluminum foil like for burritos roll in plastic wrap then in foil. no freezer burn . the bigger the foil containers are if u put them inside the bags will help. question what is ur method of taking the food out to put in the crock pot. thank u for doing the hard part. its not easy but sure better than going out all the time. l love it.

I love this site and the recipes you have in here. My girlfriends and I were talking about the hassle of cooking dinner every night. It leave little time to spend with my family, which is my priority (as I’m sure it is for many parents). After that conversation I found this website and the free recipes (thank you for letting me try this first before committing to a cookbook!). I sent this to 7 of my girlfriends and we all use these now. I LOVE, LOVE the idea of this and saving money as well by buying in bulk. Thank you again so much!

If you have the chance to post more beef or lean pork recipes that would be wonderful! Thank you again for this genius site!

I hate being rude but I tried a handful of these recipes and they were all pretty gross. I’m not even a picky eater but a couple were almost Inedible. I have tomato turkey veggie soup in the slow cooker now. I tasted it and am dumping it.

Hilary, I’m very sorry to hear this. Can you tell me what recipes you tried and what was wrong with them? What kind of crockpot are you using? We test all of our meals until we feel that they are perfect. Please let me know how I can help you.

This is a really good post I am a truck driver spending many weeks on the road and it’s nice to be able to fix meals on a Sunday afternoon and have meals for a whole week keeping me healthy and saving a lot of money, thank you

It depends on the recipe, but most are 4-6. If you click on the post that you’re interested in, open its grocery list/recipe pdf and look at the recipes. All of them should have the number of servings listed there.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
I cannot wait to try everything. You just took the guessing from all of this for me. The biggest thing that takes so much time for me is deciding what to cook, grocery list and then starting the process. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Question – When it comes to veggies in in the crock pot, do you put those in right when you get home? Or do you let cook throughout the whole day? I did a meal before (not yours) and I totally spaced and put broccoli inside the crock pot. Needless to say, the whole house stunk! Any thoughts are appreciated!

[…] 17 Freezer Meal Prep Sessions That Will Change Your Life by Kelly on NewLeafWellness We recently covered the cost saving effects of meal planning, and one easy way to plan ahead is freezer cooking. I admit, I’ll be trying several of these recipes in an effort to get my food costs under control. […]

I can’t wait to try these. One of our children is about to have surgery with a three week recovery and with three other kids at home, there will be no time for cooking. These all look like great options! My crock pot is going to get a work out!

I just ordered your 3 ebooks..how will I get access to these? Will there be an email sent to me? Very excited to get started. This will make my life so much easier not having to think about what’s for dinner.

I haven’t seen the complete recipes but from the pictures it look like some of the vegetables are packaged for the freezer unblanched. If that is the case, they can make you very sick. Are they raw or blanched.. If they are blanched they will go very mushy in the slow-cooker. Just curious. If they are put in the freezer raw, you might plan for a bit of a hospital stay.

If you’re willing to eat leftovers, I would cut them in half (and use a small crockpot – either 2 quarts or 4 quarts at most). I wouldn’t cut the meals down anymore than that because crockpots are supposed to be at least 1/3 full when cooking.

Hi… sounds a great idea but like mentioned I would be concerned about raw meat contamination and the raw veg issue already mentioned, I hadn’t thought about until now. What is done to stop this and I take it you defrost meat especially chicken first before cooking? Sorry to sound negative it’s a great idea just a few worries about food hygiene for me.

I did a lot of research when I was writing my No Cook Freezer Meals cookbook and, according to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, freezing to 0 °F inactivates any microbes present in food (such as bacteria, yeasts, and molds). That means freezing raw meat with vegetables, sauces, and spices is perfectly safe. (You can find more info on food safety here.)

I have done a lot of research in the past as well. According to the Ontario Food Council and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, MOST vegetables MUST be blanched before freezing. O* F. is the is the HIGHEST accepted temperature at which frozen foods should be stored. Safely, it should be colder. Blanching slows down or stops the action of the enzymes that causes the loss of flavor, color and texture. It brightens the color and helps retard the loss of vitamins. Blanching time is crucial and varies with each vegetable and the size of each vegetable. Under blanching stimulates the activity of enzymes and is worse than no blanching at all. Google freezing vegetables and see if they don’t agree with me. I also have several books that say the same thing. I would never mix raw meat with vegetables. Food safety tells you to thoroughly wash your hands after touching raw meat. You do this before you cross contaminate food. This happened to me and I spent a week in hospital with food poisoning.

Mixing raw meat and vegetables is only a problem if you don’t intend to cook before eating. These frozen meals will indeed be cooked and exceed 70 degrees Celsius (in Australia) which kills the bacteria. This is no different than putting fresh meat and vegetables into your slow cooker without prior freezing. As for blanching…the average home cook doesn’t need to worry about the extra work. Blanching is not common these days unless freezing a large quantity of vegetables that need to be frozen for an extended period, or in a vegetable processing factory.

thank you Kelly for posting this. I am right there with you freezing raw veggies and meat together. What an awesome post. So thankful for people like you that take the time to help the rest of us. As soon as I get some extra money I will be buying your cook books. Keep up the awesome work.

I clicked on the food safety site you recommended above and if you read carefully under Enzymes, you will see that it says most vegetables need blanching before freezing. I sincerely hope this has been a help to you and your readers.

It states, “Enzyme activity does not harm frozen meats or fish and is neutralized by the acids in frozen fruits. But most vegetables that freeze well are low acid and require brief, partial cooking to prevent deterioration. This is called “blanching.””

I do not freeze raw broccoli in my meals because I can tell you, from experience, that the taste starts to deteriorate over time. I have not had any other taste issues with vegetables in my meals.

Lynn, blanching halts the enzymes that might result in over ripened vegetables and preserves vitamins prone to deteriorating over *long periods* of storage. Kelly states that her meals have a 3 month storage limit. This is a sufficient time window to ensure the vegetables do not deteriorate and you get the promised vitamins in the final meal. The enzymes referred to by you do NOT make you sick. If that was the case, then everyone would require a hospital stay after eating a raw banana or apple. The enzymes present in raw vegetables trigger the ripening process. Since they aren’t deactivated by freezing, they can slowly over-ripen your produce. But like I said before, that only happens in long-term storage, not 3 months.

I don’t blanch. I place my raw meet and raw veggies in freezer bags and have for years. Oh my goodness! Maybe that is what is wrong with me! With so many views, likes and pins for this page, the entire nation will be sick and everyone will be hospitalized! I must bow my head in thankfulness to you because, If it weren’t for you, there would be no one left to make the world turn! I do so hope you have a cape and wear it with pride – or maybe carry a food police badge?

I m battling cancer, with my treatments my hands and feet don’t work very well and has stopped me from doing much. These freezer meals have become our life saver. My husband, who is my caretaker and still the bread winner, and I shop and prep the meals on the weekend. Then throughout the week I can manage to empty a bag into the crock pot and turn it on. When my husband gets home from work, the house smells amazing and he can relax without having to worry about making dinner. Thank You so much. For us, every little bit helps

If you’re worried about veggies, try replacing fresh veggies with already frozen ones (since you freeze the meal anyway). Also, I often put the meat in a separate bag within the “meal bag” just to be on the safe side (though I’ve never had any issue with keeping them together either since it all cooks together anyway too).

Just having moved into my own place, these meals will come in very handy. Plan on spending the whole day 1 weekend making up meals to freeze. Thank you for your generosity in sharing them all. I for 1 am very grateful to have access to them

Amazing stuff and I can’t wait to get started on these! Thank you for sharing!
Quick question: I’ve noticed that many of your recipes includes chilli/peppers or says ‘hot’ – are all your meals kid friendly (and not spicy)?

Some of them are a little bit spicy, but I still feed them to my one-year-old so they can’t be that bad. If you don’t like spicy food at all, I would recommend decreasing the amount of crushed red peppers in the recipe (if it calls for it).

Hi, I have just spent ages printing all of these out, and I am going to give this method a try ASAP! I love my slow cooker but don’t use it as much as I should and on top of that been pondering ways to meal plan better and I think THIS is it! can’t wait to give this a go. With 2 kids and one that trains 4hrs a week in gymnastics some nights we really do need food that is ready to go and can be eaten after school by myself and the kids, plus keep some hot for their dad who gets home later. We’re also really trying hard to budget better and eat better 🙂 thanks for these great ideas!

Love love love these. I have been freezing meat and UN-blanched veggies together for more than 25+ yrs and have never been sick. My question is this between working late and a long commute I was often away from home for 10-11 hrs, most of these only need to cook 6-8 hrs. Many times my meat has ended up dry. I no longer work outside of the home so this will no longer be an issue. Is their any suggestions for when this happens now due to outings or full day trips?

The only issue with that is that you will only want your food to sit for about an hour before serving or it will get cold. A programmable crockpot will turn it to “warm” and it can stay on that setting for hours.

I love all these recipes and am going to try the first 6-meal-batch this week for one half of the family. Do you do recipes without meat? Two of my children are vegetarians. By leaving out the meat the meals don’t look substantial anymore. Or is that what you would suggest?

Hi Kelly, I think these are great. Makes me want to run out to buy a smaller slow cooker with a timer function. Cos’ the one I inherited is too big and has no timer function. As you may have guessed by now I need to make much smaller portions, don’t fancy eating so much leftovers, and also I work shift hours.
I love how patient you are, answering the same questions, again and again. Labels anyone?
I could not help but snort at the blanching of veggies, or end up in hospital comment. 😉 Sorry Lynn, no offense.They all get cooked together anyway. 🙂 My mum used to throw everything in the crock pot, and we ate it, no problems, think I would have recalled a hospital stay. I am still around, more than 4 decades on earth. 😉

Hi Tanya. They are pdf eBooks. Sometimes there is a slight delay in processing, so that might be what happened, or they could have gone directly to spam or gotten lost somewhere along the way. Regardless, I replied to your email and sent you new copies. I apologize for any inconvenience! Thank you for your purchase!

I have a cheap one from ALDI and it works fine on onions, but I’m not sure if its strong enough for carrots. The Vidalia Chop Wizard has the highest ratings on Amazon, so that’s the one that I would buy.

Thanks so much for sharing your recipes. i will trying 3 this weekend (that is prepping them). This past month, I find that my life has been so chaotic that i sometimes have my little girl eat but I neglect to eat myself which is totally wrong. I am getting back to sitting down at every meal and I hope this is my ticket to have nutritious family oriented time together. I will most likely be getting your ebooks too. THANKS!!!

I’m looking forward to trying some of the recipes I made this weekend. I used a couple of the lists from above, and made a total of 15 frozen meals. But I have to say, the times you list for prep are very deceiving. The chopping takes forever. I was at it for HOURS (as in 5-6 hours). And I’m not particularly slow. Plus I was decently organized after my shopping trip yesterday!

Thanks for sharing, Lindsay. I’ll tell you that I actually time every single prep session (and usually add extra time since I work fast), but I have a lot of freezing experience and everyone and every kitchen is different. I hope you love all of your meals! 🙂

[…] this pin on a new board I am following: Best Blogger Recipes. The pin took me to a great site New Leaf Wellness and the post 17 Freezer Meal Prep Sessions That Will Change Your Life. You know me – I love discovering things that will change my life for the better! […]

Hi Chris! My two most recent prep sessions have “after pics.” I’m also taking a ton of pics for my new cookbook that’s coming out this summer. I’m not always able to take after pics for my prep sessions because it can take us months to eat all the food – I’d never get the post live on my site!

Kelly, thanks so much for these amazing resources! My father-in-law died this morning. We knew the last few days that he was about to leave this life for his real home in heaven. Yesterday morning I knew I had to act fast if I was going to help my mother-in-law with meals after the funeral was over. She lives in a different state, so we won’t be there from week to week to help. In the morning I printed out your lists, picked out the ones I wanted to make, went shopping with my four kids, and started making freezer meals at about 3:30 pm. It took me 5 to 6 hours (with some help from my children) to whip up 21 meals! Each meal will feed my mother-in-law 4 to 6 times, so we’ll keep some of them. Thank you so much for blessing us with the grocery lists and recipes. You’ve had a hand in taking care of a widow in her distress. We have prayed God’s blessings on you.

I’m wondering if you have any freezer meals that you grill? It’s almost summertime and grill season! I was thinking a couple of your chicken recipes I minimally looked over might work. Have you ever tried any?

Hi- I just ordered your fabulous set of three cookbooks this am and the pdf hasn’t seemed to have come through on email. Any idea how long it takes?
I made a bunch of your online chicken freezer emails last weekend and they were wonderful! Thought I’d find some more recipes in your books. Great job! Thanks!

Are there any recommended recipes for picky eaters? I tried some freezer meals awhile back and they were not very tasty. My picky eaters wouldn’t touch them. I am expecting again and my schedule got crazier so I want to try it again and be healthy, just not sure which one to start with. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you 🙂

It depends on the recipe. I like to freeze them whole when I can because it saves time. Then, we can eat them whole or shred them after cooking. I do pre-cut the chicken for certain recipes though, like my slow cooker chicken curry. In those cases is doesn’t make sense to leave whole or shred. Hope that helps.

My Family is a meat and potatoes lovers, do you have any recipes for us as a family of six?
Can’t wait to try some of the above recipes though. Love that is three recipes at a time and not 6 hrs of time needed

Thank you so much for offering these for free, because we’re in a tough financial situation right now. These meals will be great to stock our freezer with later this year before November, when our baby is due.

I’m having eye surgery on Thursday . I’m going to Aldi tomorrow, & getting the items listed. These meals will help my husband out a great deal while I’m recovering. With us having 5 kids..I’m thinking this is one less thing he’ll have to worry about 😉 Thank you for sharing these with us.

I love these ideas!! Having everything in one place sure makes shopping and prepping easy! We have no kitchen at the moment due to remodeling so being able to use my crock pot will make things much less stressful for me! I even showed this to some family members and we are making a day of it this weekend so we can all stock our freezers! Thanks for making things so easy!!

Hi Kelly, I just found your site through pinterest and I absolutely LOVE these recipe ideas. As a mom of 5, I have a terrible time finding freezer meals all/most of my kiddos will actually eat but a lot of your recipes seem very kid-friendly. I’m so glad I found this site, since I’m going back to school full-time in Sept…Keeping the household running smoothly is one of my biggest concerns, since my husband usually works 50-60 hours a week but I can see these meals saving me sooo much time and worry ☺

I love these recipes and I so appreciate that you have made the grocery list and recipes as a PDF. I have done freezer meals in the past and had to go through each one, making the grocery list and putting all the recipes together – it was a job for sure! I do have a quick question. I have had trouble in the past that all the freezer meals turn out looking the same – almost brown and mushy. Do you have any tricks for preventing this?

My advice is to pick better recipes! 🙂 But really, it sounds like you may be over-cooking them. If your slow cooker is high-powered, you may want to decrease the cooking time. Some chicken recipes can cook as quickly as 3 hours on “Low.”

I use my 6-quart the most because it has a timer, but I think these recipes will work in a 4-quart too. You will definitely need to cut in half for a 1.5 quart pot. Chicken recipes will probably be the easiest to adapt. You may need to do some experimenting with roasts and soups.

I am so excited about these freezer meals! I just went shopping for the White Chicken Chili, Veggie Soup, and Ham & Potato Soup! We tried the Ham & Potato Soup yesterday…it was fabulous!! My boyfriend and I both had seconds and there was hardly any leftover. Tonight we are trying the Chicken Chili. Although we loved the soup, it may have been too “soupy”—do you have have any tips for thickening the recipes?

Kelly, once again…the Chicken Chili did not disappoint!! Flavor was so good and everything seemed to cook perfectly. I try Pinterest recipes all the time and it’s common to find these “cheap” and “easy” meals to be lacking in every aspect! Yours definitely do not. My boyfriend and I are saving for our first home and with him working 12 hour days and myself being a full time student…your crockpot meals have fit perfectly into our schedule and budget!! I look forward to trying them ALL!

I really loved these freezer meals. I haven’t tried them yet, but will be doing so soon. I can see the value in it, and the amount of time saved as well in preparing the meals at once versus preparing each meal prior to cooking.

My challenge is that the recipes appear to be for a big family; several people in the family. I’m a single mom, so it’s just me and my 4 yr-old son. Any suggestion in customizing the recipe to fit just a small family, or 2-3 persons? Also from where I live, I’m not sure if we have tater tots here. I’ve been to majority of the groceries here in the Philippines but haven’t come across one so far. Do you have any suggestions or substitutes in place for tater tots?

Hi the meals look great. I was just wondering if you have a list of meals that all cook for 10 hours on low? I’d love to prep them for our school year, and we are out of the house for about 10 hours during the day.

I don’t have a list, but I would recommend recipes with a longer cooking time, like soups, chilis, and roasts. Even then, I would use a smaller slow cooker (4-quarts) because I think 10 hours is too long in most 6- or 7-quarts. At some point you might want to buy a slow cooker with a timer. I bought one earlier this year and love it!!

Ok, silly question but I must ask for clarification. For all the recipes with ground beef or turkey, we do not brown the meat first, right? Thanks! Was probably answered early but too long to sift through the responses 🙂

Thank you so much for taking the time to do all of this, for free of charge at that! You are a life saver and these are amazing meal ideas. Just wanted to you to know how much your efforts are appreciated!

I am in the same position as michelle, I am out of the house for 9-10 hours. I do have a slow cooker that will switch to the warm setting once the chosen time is up, but still its a long time for many recipes (especially the chicken ones to cook). Instead of thawing the night before for some of the 4-6 hour cooking times, could the prepped bag go in frozen to help stretch out the cooking time?

[…] at home and cut down on those high takeaway costs, and unhealthy meals. Another great tip is to do freezer meal preps for lazy days. This does not mean that you cannot have cheat meals though or lunch meetings, but it […]

I love this idea! I’m so excited to finish my first round of meals!! I just got done with the Chili and now I’m working on prepping the Crockpot Honey Dijon Pork. I’m a little confused…it says on the actual recipe “3 pounds of meat” but the grocery list only called for 2lbs of boneless pork ribs and 2lbs of pork roast (you said you did two different bags with a different type of pork). So, I only bought 2 pounds of the pork ribs and 2 lbs of the pork roast. I don’t have 3 pounds of one type of meat. Help!

Hi, these look like wonderful recipes but I don’t have a slow cooker at the moment. Could you recommend a method for cooking any of these in a pot over the stove, or maybe direct me to some other freezer meals that don’t require a slow cooker?

[…] freezer meals on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/jenn2298/ I have found a few good ones on New Leaf Wellness. I will be posting a new article on time saving meal prep tips later this week so be sure to visit […]

Thank you for taking the time to post these recipes (and the patience to answer all the replies!) I have a quick question: it seems that all the meat is purchased cold, but not frozen. We raise our own meat and everything is in the deep freeze. I’ve heard that you cannot refreeze raw meat, and it must be cooked first? Have you done any of these meals with thawed and refrozen meat?

I usually thaw in the refrigerator overnight. If I forget, I use water in the morning. I stack my bags in the freezer and I’ve learned the hard way that it’s impossible to fit a frozen square block in an oval slow cooker.

i don’t have a slow cooker but I have an electric pressure cooker. Do you think using your recipes with the pressure cooker would have similar results in terms of flavour and consistency? I am pregnant and must find a solution for cooking ahead of time!

Do you add liquid to some of these recipes? (Chicken fajitas, beef roast and carrots, red pepper chicken) they seem like they would be sort of dry and might burn if not enough liquid? Just curious if putting chicken or beef broth would make a difference? Thank you!

I think adding extra liquid will only dilute the flavor of the dish. The veggies release plenty of liquid while cooking. Just make sure not to overcook the chicken – it’s easy to burn in a large slow cooker.

[…] you will be able to pull it out and heat it up whenever needed. A big tool that helps me is my CrockPot. It was given to me when I left for college and it has been my lifesaver. You can turn it on when […]

The title of this post did EXACTLY as promised. THIS IS GOING TO CHANGE MY LIFE!

I’m so excited that I bought (almost) everything in sight to support this site. The value of this goes well beyond what I paid. Thank you for all the hard work!!! I wish to support further in the future.

This is has helped me not only fixed my immediate problem of finding healthy meals but gave me a solid process to follow and the ability to maximise the amount of food for the least amount of time through food cooking automation (ie. using a crockpot)… Just brilliant!

Thank you so much for the recipes and bundles of recipes. When my children were little I used to do once a month cooking, but a move overseas and a tiny freezer interrupted that custom.

My freezer is still small but even if I can’t do a full thirty meals, 10 meals will be better than none! It took me far longer than the allotted time, but I don’t have things like canned beans available to me, I have to do it all from scratch. But my freezer is stocked with 8 meals and I feel like I accomplished so much today. The gluten free options were really nice to have as we have two family members with Celiac’s.

Anyhow, just wanted to say thank you. I know it isn’t easy to write all these up and get them posted so I wanted to let you know that all the hard work is appreciated. I pinned the link so that next Friday I can try a different set of recipes.

Just found your site from a Pinterest pin. I can’t thank you enough for such a great collection of recipes. Most of the “make ahead” posts I have found have multiple links to follow for each recipe and it takes forever to gather all the info. Your PDFs are wonderful and I can’t wait to start trying your recipes. Thanks ever so much.

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service recommends thawing frozen meat first. I think the total cooking time will depend on the size/strength of your slow cooker. Chicken might be OK for 8 hours in a 4 quart slow cooker (or smaller).

Kelly, I stumbled upon your blog last evening & have passed it on to all of my friends today. I’m anxious to go through all of your recipes & pick out a few with which to start. Unlike many of my friends, I don’t have a family to feed …luckily, I LOVE leftovers! But if I didn’t, I would split the finished product in half & share it with a friend. Maybe I’d be lucky enough that that friend would make a different recipe that she or he would share with me. 🙂 I already “batch cook” — when I cook — I’ve just never tried freezing everything uncooked beforehand! Thanks for all of your hard work & passing on your knowledge!

Hi Kelly!
I just love this idea of making crockpot ready freezer meals. As I work 8 hr days and most times hate having to cook when I get home. I only have 1 problem. All of your recipes are for 4-6 people. I’m a single guy. Should I just halve all the recipes? Anywhoo…Keep up the great work! Your meals look awesome! Can’t wait to try a few!

Thank you for the dairy-free post! I have a milk allergy and have thought about giving this a go for a while, but so many recipes are not allergy-friendly for me. It was also fantastic to have the pdf and not have to individually click through each recipe. Blessings!

I really wish that I could, Tina, but it would take me FOREVER to calculate. If you’re interested in my eCookbooks I provide the nutritional info for all of the recipes there: https://newleafwellness.biz/shop/

Actually, I can’t find your order. Can you please email me at kelly@newleafwellness.biz and tell me what you purchased? If you used a different email address to make the purchase, please include that in the email too. I tried searching for one submitted with this comment and couldn’t find anything. Sorry about that!

This is literally everything I was searching for and more! The easy PDF sheets are a LIFESAVER. As a busy college student who never has the time or energy to cook for myself, I’ve always wanted to do Crockpot meals, but didn’t want to do the work to search for/write down all the ingredients and the fact that you did all of it in an easy, printable format is so awesome! You’re awesome!!!! 🙂

I’m trying out your freezer meals and I’m just learning how to cook. I’m only preparing meals for one person, so I am dividing the recipes in half. Would I cook the food in the crockpot for the same recommended time or shorter? Thank you!

I just took out one of my thawed meals to place in the crockpot, and I noticed that despite following the directions for the potatoes, some
of them were really dark brown and they had a rubbery texture. I really hope they will turn out palatable after cooking because 3 of my other bags have potatoes in them as well…I would hate for all that time and food to go to waste. :/

My potatoes always seem to be OK, but I’ve heard of other people having problems with them. Check out the tips in this post. If they didn’t cook well in your last meal I would try to remove the potatoes before adding the meal to the crockpot so it’s still edible (you could even add some fresh potatoes at that point). I would also thaw the meal in water instead of the fridge.

Hi, these recipes look great. And the whole idea of preparing and freezing ahead of time would be a life saver with a baby on the way.
But I do have a question…
What if you dont have a slow cooker (though Im seriously considering buying one)? Would they come out ok with a slow simmer on the stove?
Thank you

I use these recipes all the time make about one to two weeks worth and then freeze them with the intent to cook in my Dutch oven. Always cooking at 350 for an appropriate amount of time for the meal. I also now baggie my meat and veggies separate in smaller backs the in purchasing in larger bags to cook meat longer than veggies to avoid mushiness…and I too reuse all of my bags, or i will use metal tins to store in to go straight to oven. Regardless of the vessel the prep and recipes are the key. Much appreciated post.

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Hi, is there a place where the nutrition info for these meals is listed, or did I just miss it? If there isn’t, would it be possible to get that information on existing and future meal recipes? I am trying to keep track of my calories and such. Thanks!

What are the rules for putting a half thawed/frozen meal in the crockpot? It’s difficult with a 9-5 job to plan on meals that cook in 3-6 hours, so I’m tempted to pull out a frozen meal post-work, let it thaw in the fridge until bedtime, and cook it throughout the night… Any insight?

So, what if I have chicken in my freezer that is already frozen…should I unthaw it and then put it in the meals and refreeze, or should I just take the frozen stuff out and put it straight into the freezer meal bags? Thank you

Can this be done without thawing it the night before. Would it be possible to just use it straight from freezer, dump into slow cooker (minus the bag of course) and then cook on low for 8 hours instead?

As a Registered Dietitian, mom of 4 kids ages 4-16, band mom, soccer mom, etc. I am absolutely in love with your blog! Not only are these great time savers for busy days, the recipes are nutritious, delicious and have a been hit with my family! I’ve tried some other freeze ahead slow cooker meals – some use too many packaged ingredients, not enough veggies, and some just haven’t turned out so well – yuck. 🙁 But your recipes are reliable, which is important if I’m spending this kind of time and money to prep ahead. Your printable recipe/grocery lists are so helpful! If anyone hasn’t done this but is thinking about it, do it! I can prep 10 meals in 3 hours including clean-up. (A couple cheaters– I buy frozen diced onions – use 1 cup per onion called for in the recipe- and the tubes of minced garlic – 1 tsp per clove – huge time/prep saver! Also, I put dinner in the slow cooker before I start my prep – that way after I clean up, I don’t have to worry about starting over again – dinner is already cooking!) Thank you for all of your work to help busy families eat healthy meals!!

This list is amazing! My sister and I prep meals from it every month and we are so impressed by how easy, delicious and cost effective they are. The format of the site and easy to print shopping lists and recipes are perfect. I have shared this with family and friends, I am sure you have made meal time easier for countless families!

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